Headlines

Post-Brexit trade frictions have “significantly altered” freight traffic between the Republic and Britain and sparked a steep rise in volumes to and from Ireland and other European Union members, an Irish Government agency report noted on Thursday, the Irish Times reported. The introduction of checks on some goods since Britain left the EU’s trading orbit on December 31st cut imports from Britain by 35 per cent in the first five months of 2021 while the number of shipping routes to mainland Europe more than doubled.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is planning a snap election for Sept. 20 to seek voter approval for the government's costly plans to combat COVID-19, Retuers reported. Trudeau is set to make the announcement on Sunday, according to sources. Trudeau aides have said for months that the ruling Liberals would push for a vote before end-2021, two years ahead of schedule. Trudeau only has a minority government and relies on other parties to push through legislation. In recent months he has complained about what he calls opposition obstruction.

The Philippine central bank held its key interest rate steady for a sixth straight meeting, with the bank’s chief warning that lingering lockdowns to stem the spread of Covid-19 are threatening the economy’s recovery, Bloomberg News reported. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas left the benchmark rate at 2% Thursday, as all 19 analysts in a Bloomberg survey predicted. “The reimposition of quarantine measures to arrest the recent wave of Covid-19 infections could pose a risk to the ongoing economic recovery,” Governor Benjamin Diokno said at a briefing in Manila.

City Developments Ltd, run by Singapore’s richest property dynasty, reported a first-half loss on the fallout from the pandemic and said it is mulling a deeper China presence after being stung by write downs on an earlier investment, Bloomberg News reported. Travel restrictions caused revenues to decline at the firm’s hotel operations and investment properties, while the withdrawal of Covid tax relief plans contributed to a S$32.1 million ($23.7 million) loss in the first six months.

New Zealand said it won’t loosen its stringent border-control and quarantine procedures until next year as it doubles down on its zero-Covid-19 approach to the pandemic, with plans to consider for entry only vaccinated travelers from low-risk countries starting in early 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Pacific nation of some 4.9 million people has been closed to virtually all travelers since March 2020. That approach has been credited for keeping its Covid-19 infection rate among the lowest in the world, with 26 reported deaths since the pandemic began.

Facing possible bankruptcy, the city of Kyoto has drafted a financial restructuring plan that would trim its bureaucracy, reduce the number of elderly residents eligible for bus and subway discounts and cut spending on day care centers, the Japan Times reported. “I deeply regret the fact that we’ve been forced to rely on special measures in order to manage our finances,” Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa said Tuesday when announcing the plan.

Colombia’s flag carrier Avianca has submitted a reorganisation plan to a US bankruptcy court, Flight Global reported. The Bogota-based airline’s plan, submitted to the bankruptcy court for the Southern District of New York on 10 August, outlines its obligations to creditors and the settlement of claims. It says a new strategy will help it simplify operations and position Avianca to thrive in the Latin American market. Avianca and its Latin American peers Aeromexico and LATAM Airlines declared bankruptcy last year after the coronavirus decimated global air travel demand.

Two meetings of groups of creditors of indebted Ocho Rios attraction Mystic Mountain Limited, MML, held during the past week, have failed to resolve issues related to whether the beleaguered company will be declared bankrupt and its assets sold off to repay bondholders and other persons and institutions it owes money, the Jamaican Gleaner reported. Unresolved, too, is whether MML's changing payment proposal to settle its debt will be accepted by the creditors. Likewise, the status of the trustee the company chose to oversee that process is still not settled.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai on August 6 dismissed an application seeking the closure of Rolta India’s Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the Times of India reported. A consortium of lenders to Rolta represented by advocates Rohit Gupta and Nausher Kohli had opposed a plea for closure of the process, saying that they have an outstanding of around Rs 5,400 Crores.